Product Description

How unique is this? For the first time ever, a dollar sign on a Euro coin! Monnaie de Paris and Talisman Coins are proud to bring you this tour-de-force of the minter's art. Combining the best of traditional engraving and modern technologies, a masterful, changing-image version of Andy Warhol's famous Self Portrait (1964) is paired with a full color rendering of Warhol's famous pop art dollar sign, done in real artist's paint! (We like the dollar sign better than soup cans, by the way!)

A Work of Art in Its Own Right! This fabulous coin is a true work of art in its own right, with all the bells and whistles:

 Full-color dollar sign on a Euro-denominated coin - executed in real acrylic paint!  Andy Warhol's most famous self portrait, done at the height of his powers in 1964.  Warhol's facsimile signature under his self-portrait.  Warhol's famous quote, "Making money is art." (More on this below.)

Depending upon how you tilt the coin, Andy Warhol's portrait changes its appearance! You get a number of completely different versions of Warhol's famous self-portrait, all in one engraving! (Please see image to the left.) This lenticular effect duplicates the pop art graphics that have made Warhol so famous around the world (and for more than 15 minutes, we might add)!

Art and Money, Money and Art Born Andrew Warhola in Pennsylvania in 1928, Andy Warhol is indubitably the artist most linked to money. Warhol was obsessed by both fame and money, having grown up poor (his father was a coal miner), so it's no surprise that he would transform the dollar sign ($) into an icon of modern art. Here's what the leader of the Pop Art Movement had to say about making money:Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art.

This statement is of course ambiguous, at least in our context: one can make (earn) money, but a mint literally makes (strikes or manufactures) money in the form of coins - such as the one we offer here today!

Andy Warhol went even further than this, saying that money could (literally) be art, as well!

I like money on the wall. Say you were going to buy a $200,000 painting, I think you should take that money, tie it up and hang it on the wall. Then, when someone visited you, the first thing they would see is the money on the wall.

Truly creative, and truly an American original! However, it's impossible to talk about Warhol and money without mentioning the stratospheric heights to which his artwork has ascended, auction-wise. The highest price ever paid for an Andy Warhol painting was $100 million for a 1963 canvas titled Eight Elvises. The private transaction was reported in a 2009 article in The Economist, which described Warhol as the "bellwether of the art market." The $100 million benchmark price has been achieved by only a mere handful of artistic luminaries: Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-August Renoir, Gustav Klimt and Willem de Kooning (in addition to Warhol). That's pretty noteworthy company!

Andy Warhol and Pop Art Andy Warhol was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker, and the leading figure in the visual art movement known as Pop Art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and member of highly diverse social circles that included Bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy patrons.

Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. He coined the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame", saying,

In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.

He himself is famous for his own portraits of the rich and famous, including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali and Elizabeth Taylor, as well as for the creative collective and studio he founded, "The Factory"

Obverse Andy Warhol's famous interpretation of the United States Dollar Sign, rendered in real, artist's acrylic paint. There are no legends on this side, to enhance the artistic value of the work. The date of issue is indicated.

A multiple view, changing depiction of Andy Warhol's famous Self-Portrait (1964), superimposed on his famous quote, "Making money is art." Below the portrait is a facsimile of Warhol's signature and the dates of his birth and death, 1928-1987. The denomination and RF, for République Française ("The French Republic") are also indicated. Packaging

Each coin is encapsulated and presented in the traditional, blue Monnaie de Paris gift box with gilt lettering and lined with gray velvet, protected by a full color outer sleeve. An individually numbered certificate of authenticity is included.